"This is Peter Maynard," Peter said in clear englisch. "You offered to talk some more?"
"Ah - it is good to hear from you," the man named Frank replied. "And you want to take me up on my offer?"
"Me and Kana both - yes," Peter stated.
"The girl too? Well okay - does that mean she is a fan of you too then?" he asked.
"Are you really surprised?" Peter said to him. "We both know that it are not my novels you want to talk about. It is something else."
"Let us say it is at least something connected to your stories. Isn´t that true? You could say it is a source of inspiration for them. Like, let´s say visions you had on your mind?"
A quite harmless and uncommitted way to say it, Peter thought. Possible for Frank to claim that the word `visions´ was just a matter of speech, should he decide to deny everything.
"I have been... seeing some things through my entire life," Peter said.
It felt easier admitting it this time. Easier than the first time around with Kana. On the other side he had a good feeling that this guy already knew about it the entire time anyway.
"And I guess that girl Kana is the same?" Frank stated.
"Yes, she is," Peter replied. "Just like you are Frank," he confronted him directly. "After all you know a lot of things you should´t have known otherwise."
"You got me here," he replied with a slightly amused tone. "You are right."
"You are like us," Peter stated.
"Yes," Frank admitted without hesitation. "I saw visions my entire life. I saw things that could only have been from other worlds or universes. And I saw scenes from our normal lives here on Earth, that had not happened yet, but became reality later.
I heard voices speaking to me from... from somewhere else.
It is the same with you, isn´t it?" Frank questioned.
`Somewhere else,´ Peter did not miss this small detail in the wording he used.
It was obvious that Frank took it as a given that the visions came from an outside source instead from somewhere inside themselves.
Okay, Peter himself actually believed the same thing. But he never saw it as a proven fact and always considered the possibility that he might be wrong about it.
"And for years I asked myself, why?" Frank continued. "Until I finally found answers."
"Answers? Why should we believe that you know something about the reason behind the visions that me and Kana don´t?" Peter questioned sceptically.
"Maybe I just listened better?" Frank suggested crypticly.
`Or maybe you are just crazy,´ Peter thought silently.
"By the way, how did your conversation with the police go?" he asked Frank.
"I guess as well as it could have been expected given the circumstances," Frank admitted. "They were, well - skeptical when I told them about my planned meeting with Sarah and you. And that Claire chose that of all places to... attack someone."
Claire, Peter had already heard the actual name of Frank´s now dead lover the first time at the police station. Attack? She had downright murdered someone. But given their relationship, he guessed he could not hold it against Frank that he didn´t want to speak it out.
"Of course," Peter simply replied.
"Well, in the end they just let me leave my contact information. And since I am not from this country, they told me that they would also inform the british police. And that their colleagues there ould contact me if there would be any more questions."
"I see," Peter commented.
"But we are getting off topic, aren´t we?" Frank stated. "The visions - you want to know more, don´t you? And so does the girl. Just like I did back then."
"Maybe. But like I said, that does not mean that we believe that you can actually tell us anything useful," Peter retorted.
"Really?" Frank countered. "Tell me, have you ever completely given in to the virsions and the voices in your mind? You have not, haven´t you? You have always staid with one leg grounded in reality.
You have used them as inspiration for your novels. But you have never truly given in, never allowed the visions to take you over completely and let them tell you the entire message."
That would of course mean that there was any actual message hidden in their visions in the first place. And not just chaotic scenes they saw.
"You know how you are sounding right now, right?" Peter asked him bluntly.
"Like I have lost my mind? Like I am delusional?" Frank suggested. "Well, that is what people who have visions often do, right?" he said ironically.
Peter was not even quite sure how to respond to that statement.
"You can meet with me tomorow and I can tell you some of the things I know. Or even better, you and Kana can come with me to my home in London and I can show you two everything. All I have written down and collected over the years."
Peter said nothing for a few moments.
"You actually expect us to travel with you to London and visit your home? We don´t even know you."
"And here you are wrong," Frank replied. "All three of us know each other. Because we are the same. We have experienced the same thing. We know each other like nobody else does.
I have just embraced our shared gift more than you two did... and I received answers from it, answers that I want to share with you two. And because I know you so well, I know how much you are craving for them. Just admit it."
Peter did admit it, what Frank said was not wrong. He did feel the overwhelming craving to find out more. Something that he had, as it looked, suppressed for years without even fully realizing it.
And if there was even the slightest chance that he could now actually get some of this answers.
But at the same time Frank had just gone over from `somewhat suspicious´ to `definitely suspicious´ in his mind.
"But if you insist," Frank continued, "I can make you an offer."
"What kind of offer?" Peter asked.
"You can take your gun with you. The one that you always carry around with you when you are on travels."
How did he know that? Not even his parents or Sarah were aware that he was usually carrying a gun when he was away.
Could it truly be that Frank was getting informations from the visions that he or Kana couldn´t?
Then what else did he know and could tell them?
xxxxxxx
An hour later
"You can not be serious," Carry said to them.
"Believe me, we are," Kana replied flatly.
They had expected such kind of reaction, of course. The question was how much should they tell them?
"You actually want to go with that - that man and visit him in England?" Carry asked her. "You say he has something that is somehow important to you? Beth is dead and you want to visit her murderer´s boyfriend? Seriously, right now I don´t know what is going on inside your head Kana. What if he and his girlfriend were in cahoots with each other and he is a psycho too?"
Kana was not even sure how to reply to this. She and Peter themselves had thought about that possibility themselves more than once.
But they just had to do this. If there was any chance to find out anything about what was behind the visions, they just had to go.
They both sighed. There was no way Carry and Sarah would accept their decision, unless they gave them a real explanation. But there was no way for them to explain this, unless they told them the entire truth.
Which Sarah and Carry would certainly not even believe anyway.
Of course they could simply travel to London anyway, not matter what their sister and friend thought about it.
But with that they would risk permanently damaging their relationship with them. Not to mention that, if they did this, they would for good reason truly think they were crazy.
"Look, it is not as if I will be travelling with him... and I will not be going alone there either. Peter and I will travel together to London and then we visit him there."
"And what difference does that make? You will still be going to his house. And about the whole `I am not going alone´."
Her eyes wandered between them. "Don´t misunderstand this," Carry said to Peter, "but you two know each other for what... two days?"
That was obviously true. But with the secret they both shared they trusted each other more than they maybe should.
Carry turned back to Kana.
"You might have the hots for him, but he is still someone you barely know. Do you really completely trust him to help you if this Frank turns out to be a killer as well?"
They both decided to ignore Carry´s comment about Kana´s interest in him. They clearly had other concerns.
"I am not an expert," Sarah pointed out, "but should the police in Brittain not have been searching his house, since his girlfriend, you know, just murdered someone?"
"They have been searching her home," Peter corrected. "But the two were not living together. And they don´t have enough reason or justification to search Frank´s place as well," he explained.
"I see," Carry remarked.
"Look - it is not that we are intending to go defenseless," Kana replied.
"Frank has made us an offer," Peter stated.
He was sighing once more.
He went over to where his suitcase was lying. He opened it and pulled something out.
It was a handgun.
"He allowed me to take this with me," He presented the weapon to the others.
"Ah Peter - since when do you have a gun?" Sarah asked.
"For years, I have just never told you... or anyone else," he answered. "But somehow Frank had known about it."
"What? But how?" Sarah was looking aghast.
"I think we should tell them everything," Kana said to Peter, "no matter if they believe us or not."
"I guess you are right," Peter replied.
"What are you talking about?" Carry asked.
"There is actually something that we have not told you," Kana stated.
She looked to Peter, who nodded.
And they told them everything, about the visions she and Peter had, about all what happened.
xxx
A short time later
Carry was starring at them like they were completely out of their minds.
Sarah was a bit more reserved. In fact she said nothing at all at first.
"You - you are crazy, both of you," Carry exclaimed. "Beth has just died and you are loosing your mind. And now you are talking about that you are seeing visions and other dimensions and monsters. And you even want to travel to England with a possible murderer."
"Okay - first off, I told you we are not travelling with him, we are just meeting him there," Kana replied.
"What difference does that make?" Carry shouted at her. "You are delusional, both of you. You are just imagining all of this. He has probably started it and infected you with it."
"Then how did this Frank knew about my gun when even my own family didn´t?" Peter asked her.
This time it was Carry who had no answer.
"I don´t know okay. But it is certainly not because he had seen it in some crazy vision," she replied. "Sarah - please tell him, so that your brother comes back to his senses."
"Actually... - I want to come with you as well," Sarah said to everyone´s complete surprise.
"You want to travel with us to England?" Peter questioned. "You know you don´t have to do that."
"Yes," she answered. "But it is, I actually want to." She spoke more than a bit hesitantly. "Well, you see... the story you two just told, I actually find it fascinating," she admitted.
"I can hardly believe that you have kept something like this from me the entire time. Not just from me, from everyone," she stated. "But it explains a lot actually."
"Explains?" Carry said in disbelief as she heard this.
"Well - looking back, there were actually times when Peter just knew things that he shouldn´t have known or simply didn´t seemed surprised at all by some things. It was just that everybody had simply ignored it or waved it off."
"I don´t believe it," Carry said, "you have all lost your minds. Kana - I wish you good luck and I hope nothing happens to you. But if you do this, I will go back home on my own."
xxxxxxx
It was two days later, at nine in the morning and Peter, Sarah and Kana were now once again standing on the rail platform at the station in Oldenburg. This time however it was not separate, but together in a group of three.
Carry had fulfilled her promise and travelled back to the USA on her own. Maybe it was better this way. Objectively seen this was probably the better decision.
Actually Peter was on half his mind to send Sarah back as well. But she stubbornly insisted to come with them.
"I know I should have maybe be angry with you that you have kept something like this from me, well - our entire lives. But, given what it was - god, I am not even sure if I could tell our parents about it if I tried to without looking like a complete lunatic.
So I understand why you never told anything.
But I am happy that I know now," she said. "So whatever happens, I am with you Peter."
That was what Sarah had told him just a few minutes after his and Kana´s revelation two days ago. So how could he have just send her away if she didn´t want to, after she had said something like this?
And still, Peter and Kana knew better than anybody that they were not acting rationally by visiting the home of a suspicious figure like Frank.
But they knew they had to do it. Maybe they had really both gone insane.
Another option however, the one that something from the outside connected to the visions, was influencing their minds, scared Peter even more.
xxx
The train was just now arriving in front of them.
Peter had by now cancelled all the tickets and reservations for his planned Europe trip.
Well, despite everything going on, he still got lucky in a few parts. His travel cancelation insurance would take over most of the costs, except the part of the journey between Oldenburg and Paris, that was meant to take part during the last day and was too short timed to be refounded.
He also booked three new train-tickets to London, over France and the tunnel under the Channel.
Sarah had suggested maybe using the airplane. But Peter stood by the fact that he hated air flights.
Kana was mostly neutral in their discussion. Like Peter she usually preferred the train too.
She did not really care that much how they came to London, as long as they did arrive there.
The train came to an halt before them, the doors opened and they stepped inside.
A few minutes later, after passengers leaving and new ones entering, the train begann to move once more.
xxxxxxx
During the next few hours the train was first heading southwards and then changing course on tracks leading to the West and to the french border.
Then it passed the border and once again changed direction, heading northway, towards Calais. There they would enter the tunnel that connected England and the Continent at the narrowest part of the Channel.
Peter, Kana and Sarah were sitting together in a small compartment. They had spend most of the time talking to each other.
Or more precisely Peter and Kana had spend most of the time responding to Sarah´s questions about their visions.
After a few more hours of travel, the sun was starting to set.
It was not that late yet. But having woken up early and spending nearly the entire day on the train, they had been tired.
And now they had fallen asleep in their seats. All three of them were sleeping... and dreaming.
Out of them however Peter and Kana were again seeing visions in their sleep.
And once again they were sharing the same vision.
xxxxxxx
They found themselves standing inside a large round hall. It was looking old, attrided... but also intimidating and somehow imposant, like it belonged to a castle or an old church.
The walls were made from large naked brickstones. The only light came from torches that were hanging in regular distances around the room.
Back then, as the vision had warped the corridors of the station building into this very tunnel, Peter had seen Kana and all what she saw, but not the other way around. As if Kana had been physically there, but he had not.
This time it was different. They both could see
Kana was trying to talk, but no words left her lips.
At the other end of the hall was a large door. It was old or it at least looked like it – made from thick plates of wood. The wood however looked rotten and decayed, the hinges were eroded.
And in front of this door were standing five figures.
All of them had their backs turned to them, looking in the direction of the door.
At the same time Kana and Peter were hearing a noise. It was at first only something like a light background noise. That you only noticed when you paid attention to it. But it was becoming louder.
There was something sinister and deeply unsettling about this entire scene. And both Peter and Kana had seen many sinister and unsettling scenes before. But it was not only the sight of the place around them. All their sensed told both Peter and Kana that something was wrong.
And still they could not help themselves to move closer. It was as if they were not in control of themselves.
Of course, this was a dream after all. They were only here in their minds. Their bodies were still lying sleeping in their train compartment.
Peter and Kana saw that three of the five figures were wearing grey colored robes that ressembled clerical clothes, with symbols from different ancient languages written on their arms and shoulders.
Peter recognized a few of the symbols - egypt, persian, sumerian... Religious symbols from different religions... the Pentagramm - a five pointed star, the egyptian Ankh - a cross with a circle as it´s upper bar, a cross turned on it´s head. A few others he did not recognize or simply could not make out clearly.
A fourth figure was standing a bit aside from the others. She, by the shape and the long hair they were pretty sure it was a woman, was wearing a similar robe, but without the symbols on it.
And the fifth one, the one standing in front of the rest of them and so the closest to the door. Who was clad in a black cloak and had the hood drawn over it´s face.
They all were beginning to chant the same line, that was now halling over the place.
"He is coming. He is coming."
They turned around to them.
Kana and Peter were starring at them. None of them had the face of a human.
- The one standing the furthest at the right, a woman going by her figure, had the features of a reptile. A humanoid snake with black eyes.
- The one next to her had a face that ressembled a bull, with small horns, that were mostly covered by the hood, growing out of the sides of his head.
- The one in the middle had the face of a jackal. Nearly like the Egyptian God Anubis. Only that this figure was obviously female.
- The one wearing the black cloak had a face ressembling a human skull, but with long sharp fangs instead of normal teeth in his mouth and pupilless black eyes.
In this black eyes however small flames seemed to start burning as he was repeating the same line like the others.
"He is coming."
- And the last figure on the left, who was standing in a small distance to the others.
Her face looked partly human... partly.
Her skincolor however was ash grey, with black hair and four pairs of long fangs in the upper and lower jaws where her canines and outer front-teeth should be.
Still, the most prominent feature were her eyes, instead of human ones, hers were compound eyes like an insects. Looking at them from her otherwise humanoid, although inhuman, grey face.
"He is coming..." she repeated the same words once again, but sounded not with enthuasm but with anguish.
Her voice, they realized, was somewhat high-pitched and sounded somehow like the one of a stereotypical teenage girl. As they looked at her closely, the parts of her that looked human, she actally looked not older than a teenager.
"And they are the ones calling for him," the insect-eyed `girl´ said, looking at the others.
Peter and Kana heard the noise in the background once again. It had become even louder and was increasing once more. Louder and louder.
The uneasiness inside them now turned into naked fear.
The door on the other side of the hall was now shaking in it´s angles. As if something was pushing against it with great force.
Whatever was on the other side, they did not want to know.
xxxxxxx
Kana suddenly rose up in her seat startled.
As she looked around, she realized that she was back in their train compartment. The light was dim, but it came from one of the lamps standing on the shelfs beside their seats and not from torches like in her dream.
She saw Peter laying in his seat, not moving. He seemed to be still asleep.
But Kana noticed someone moving next to her on the other side.
"Are you awake?" she heard someone asking. That voice.
Instantly and nearly in panic she pushed on the other lamp next to her and looked around.
She saw that not Sarah was sitting in her seat, but the bizarre insect-girl she had seen in her dream.
At a second look Kana realized that she was not longer wearing the robe from before, but instead a normal looking blouse and... a miniskirt and stockings? She had her legs laid conveniently on the empty seat on the other side and wrapped around each other. And she was practically wringing herself completely relaxed and somewhat lazily in Sarah´s seat.
Kana could not help herself, but to think somewhere in the back of her mind that, especially in this clothes that a normal teenager would wear, if it were not for the fact that she was a bizarre alien monstrosity, she looked... somehow cute.
"So this is how you are travelling?" the creature said to her in the same `girly´ voice as before.
"Don´t worry," she leaned closer to Kana, "I am your friend. You can trust me."
She reached out her hand. Kana looked down on it.
But then for a moment it looked like the hand had turned into a long greyish insectual claw. And as she looked up again, she saw not the girl, but a giant grey colored mantis-like insect sitting before her.
Kana wanted to scream.
In this moment however she woke up... truly woke up.
xxxxxxx
This time they both awoke at the same moment.
"Did - did you have the same dream too?" she asked him.
"I did." Peter said. "The hall, the door, the five beings?"
Kana nodded.
"Also the last part," she asked. "When I thought I was awake, but..."
"Yes," he replied. "I saw that part too."
"Did I ever tell you that I have a great phobia against spiders and insects?" she said to him.